Is installing "Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver Software" necessary ?

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Subzerok11

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I just got the new EVO 850 and did a freash install of Win7. I installed almost all the Motherboards drivers from Asus for my old P8P67 Mobo. I installed the *Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology Driver Software* and the Samsung Magician software both these program seem similar. Should I uninstall *Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology Driver Software* ?
 
I think the Samsung software is for maintenance & diagnosis and the Intel RST is the drivers and code for the whole PCIe subsystem.

Don't quote me on that though. This is just off the top of my head.
 
Don't need it but, I like to install it so I can configure aspects of the Raid0 arrays I run. Specifically, setting cache mode to write-though to ensure data integrity as much as possible.
 
Its is needed if you want to be sure of getting maximum performance from your SATA drives.
If the SATA Line Based IRQ is shared with other system device(s) it can limit the max transfer rate and latency.
MSI - Message Signalled Interrupts are software based interrupts that dont require an IRQ pin.
MSI allows full performance for devices that make heavy use of interrupts.

Without installing RST, the Intel SATA controller wont use MSI.
If you try to enable MSI artificially on Intel SATA your system will blue screen. (there is a tool to let you make the change)
The RST driver automatically uses MSI, no need to do any more.

More info on MSI in general.
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=378044

I use MSI for my gfx card as well with the tool MSIutil.exe.
But its a bite it and see experience, it doesnt always work out well.
AMD cards should already have MSI enabled, NVidia cards need it manually changing.
 
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Subzerok11 said:
I just got the new EVO 850 and did a freash install of Win7. I installed almost all the Motherboards drivers from Asus for my old P8P67 Mobo. I installed the *Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology Driver Software* and the Samsung Magician software both these program seem similar. Should I uninstall *Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology Driver Software* ?
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I would download and install the latest Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers for your chipset but skip the complete software package, which includes not only the device drivers but also a Windows service and graphical UI application. Version 12.9.xx.xx is the most recent series with official support for the P67 chipset.

I usually just download the "F6 Floppy" Zip file.
 
Subzerok11 said:
I just got the new EVO 850 and did a freash install of Win7. I installed almost all the Motherboards drivers from Asus for my old P8P67 Mobo. I installed the *Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology Driver Software* and the Samsung Magician software both these program seem similar. Should I uninstall *Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology Driver Software* ?
Click to expand...
You definitely want to install the RST driver, though I prefer using the "F6" variant which does not include a GUI. You would want to use the GUI if using RAID and wanted an easy way to monitor and manage the array. For just AHCI mode, or RAID mode without need for a management utility, it's really not necessary.

The Samsung Magician software is what was stated as a tool for management and maintenance of the drive. One of the nice features is that the software can create a RAM drive buffer, called RAPID, which will give a boost in performance to your SSD by using a RAM cache. Other features include The ability to over-provision the drive which helps with wear leveling. You can also do an optimization pass on the drive if your OS does not support TRIM. There's also another Windows tweaks that the program suggest to optimize the drive.
 
bigdogchris said:
You definitely want to install the RST driver, though I prefer using the "F6" variant which does not include a GUI. You would want to use the GUI if using RAID and wanted an easy way to monitor and manage the array. For just AHCI mode, or RAID mode without need for a management utility, it's really not necessary.

The Samsung Magician software is what was stated as a tool for management and maintenance of the drive. One of the nice features is that the software can create a RAM drive buffer, called RAPID, which will give a boost in performance to your SSD by using a RAM cache. Other features include The ability to over-provision the drive which helps with wear leveling. You can also do an optimization pass on the drive if your OS does not support TRIM. There's also another Windows tweaks that the program suggest to optimize the drive.
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Just a note if you are running a NVMe drive, Samsung Magician doesn't bother with the ability to create a ram drive at all. FYI.
 
Grimlaking said:
Just a note if you are running a NVMe drive, Samsung Magician doesn't bother with the ability to create a ram drive at all. FYI.
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I only used it with SATAIII drives. But thanks for sharing that, I didn't know it didn't work with NVMe.
 
It does do some ingegral health monitoring for you. If you're stressed on CPU or Memory though should be no functional harm in removing it. (other than firmware updates and such that it handles for you.)
 
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